FOLU-FABLE kick off meeting

IIASA will host the FOLU-FABLE kick off meeting which aims to address three challenges through a global network of research institutions from the major G20 countries and other countries with large land-use and food sectors

On December 6-8 2017, IIASA will host the FOLU-FABLE kick off meeting to discuss how gaps in available geospatial modeling analyses can best be filled in each country; how to make the global FABLE network work; which outputs to prioritize; and how to mobilize the necessary resources.

Food, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Land, and Energy (FABLE) is an initiative to develop consistent global and national pathways towards sustainable land use and food systems by 2050.

The FABLE pathways initiative under the Food and Land-use Coalition (FOLU) aims to address three challenges through a global network of research institutions from the major G20 countries and other countries with large land-use and food sectors:

At the global level, the lack of a shared understanding of how to meet the integrated objectives of preserving biodiversity, achieving net negative emissions from land use, and producing sufficient nutritious food through sustainable agriculture. Strong global models exist for each of these issues, but they need to be better integrated to ensure consistency with the Sustainable Development Goals and planetary boundaries.

At the national level, countries lack robust and comprehensive long-term pathways towards sustainable land-use that address food production, greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity and forest conservation, freshwater availability, and air and water pollution. Most countries, including many highly bio-diverse countries, currently lack adequate analytical modeling tools that are rigorous and integrated across the various knowledge domains (agronomy, hydrology, ecology, climatology, and nutrition).

Without robust long-term pathways, countries are likely to lock themselves into policy dead-ends that will have severe unintended consequences. A central objective is to deliver rapid results that can inform global and national discussions on the implementation of the SDGs and the Paris Climate Agreement.